Ozma

My feelings about the band Ozma's music is wildly oscillating as I sample randomly from their albums. They have songs that sound like computer games and songs that take you into deep space and even a song about Natalie Portman. So far my most favorite album is The Doubble Donkey Disc.

Marmaray Opens

Coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, the rail system connecting the European and Asian sides of the city of Istanbul underneath the Bosphorus was opened on Oct. 29, 2013. Marmaray tunnel is part of a larger rail system project that is expected to significantly reduce travel time across Istanbul via public transportation.

Friendly Floatees

On 10 January 1992, during a storm in the North Pacific Ocean, several containers were washed overboard from a container ship headed from Hong Kong to the U.S.A. In one of those containers were 28,800 floatees - children's bath toys. Over the years and decades following this incident, these Friendly Floatees landed on the shores of places near and far, following the oceanic currents.

Selective Sound Neutralization

For urban dwellers like me, noise pollution sometimes becomes a big issue, especially on nights you are trying to get some sleep and your neighbors are having very loud conversations under your window for hours, or there is an international airport nearby, or the foghorn blows all through the night to provide navigation to sea-farers in the thick fog.

Sono is a sound neutralizing device that attaches to your windows, making your home the quiet sanctuary at the time you need it most. You can also utilize the setting to selectively neutralize certain frequencies so that you can hear the birds singing while blocking out other sounds. Although still a prototype, I see a very promising high-selling product...

The Reason I Jump

The Reason I Jump is a memoir by Naoki Higashida - a thirteen year-old Japanese boy, giving us a chance to take trip into his autistic-mind. I just added this brilliant book to my digital library!

Millinery Obsessions

Thanks to the Royal Christening today I learned not one but two things! The word "millinery" - women's apparel for the head, and the milliner to the millionaire - Jane Taylor.

Ode To Browsing The Web

Ode to Browsing the Web

BY

MARCUS WICKER

Two spiky-haired Russian cats hit kick flips

on a vert ramp. The camera pans to another

pocket of  the room where six kids rocking holey

T-shirts etch aerosol lines on warehouse walls

in words I cannot comprehend. All of this

happening in a time no older than your last

heartbeat. I’ve been told the internet is

an unholy place — an endless intangible

stumbling ground of false deities

dogma and loneliness, sad as a pile of shit

in a world without flies. My loneliness exists

in every afterthought. Yesterday, I watched

a neighbor braid intricate waves of cornrows

into her son’s tiny head and could have lived

in her focus-wrinkled brow for a living. Today

I think I practice the religion of  blinking too much.

Today, I know no neighbor’s name and won’t

know if  I like it or not. O holy streaming screen

of counterculture punks, linger my lit mind

on landing strips — through fog, rain, hail — 

without care for time or density. O world

wide web, o viral video, o god of excrement

thought. Befriend me. Be fucking infectious.

Move my eyes from one sight to the next.

Glaucus Atlanticus

Everything looks prettier in shades of blue ... even ocean slugs. Learned about Blue Dragon today...

Short Circuiting People's Thinking

A TedTalk I watched today introduced me to the hilarious universe of Emily Levine. She is one humorist that can talk on any subject to short-circuit your brain and make you think in way you never imagined before. She now my most favorite smarty-pants. :)

Travel Is Dangerous

The eerie photo-illustrations of Aegis-Strife design studio out of Madrid, Spain, are nightmarish yet hauntingly beautiful.

Attempt Vulcan Mind Meld

Fast Company's own Jason Feifer's advice on Leading  a Creative Life. Brilliant! My favorite node on this diagram is "Attempt Vulcan Mind Meld".

Kinetic Sand

Today I learned what yields when a mixture has 98% sand and 2% polydimethyl siloxane. It makes Kinetic Sand! Although it looks like regular beach sand at first, this mixture is easily moldable into almost anything (temporarily) making it the best desktop toy!

North Of The Sun

Some people like taking unthinkable challenges and that is exactly what Inge Wegge and Jørn Ranum did for nine months. They lived in a deserted bay in Norway above the arctic circle and had a blast. Watch the trailer for North of the Sun and you will want to watch the whole movie...

The Theoretical Minimum

I just found the best place to gain a basic understanding of each area of modern physics including all of the fundamental mathematics.The courses on The Theoretical Minimum website are designed to teach the layman via the wisdom of Leonard Susskind - a world renowned physicist. Go there and start learning now! Or you can start by reading the book with the same name:

Poison Garden

Alnwick Garden in England is not like any other botanical garden you would joyfully stroll through taking in the beauty of the flora and fauna, brushing your fingertips on the leaves and touching your nose to the delicate petals to inhale the perfume of beautiful flowers. It is a garden where the most poisonous of plants are on display. Some of them are so deadly, they have to be kept behind bars and out of reach!

Earthscraper

Even though I am fascinated by the skylines of big cities with their skyscrapers, I also do not like how those same tall buildings narrow the view of the beautiful sky. Bunker Arquitectura from Mexico took the age old idea of building down into the earth and evolved it into an inverted pyramid to design an earthscraper and proposed to build it at the historic center Mexico City. I hope they get the opportunity to realize this brilliant project.

Tactile Search

Yahoo! developed a search engine for the visually impaired in Japan which upon getting the vocal input executes a search for 3D models and prints the objects on a 3D printer. Another idea from Star Trek actualized! Follow the link above and watch the video clips!

Bike Shelf

Yet another simple, elegant, and practical design to keep your bicycle indoors while keeping it out of your way:  The Bike Shelf by Knife & Saw.

Plague Of Darkness

Carlos Amorales's imagination manifests itself in monumental proportions. His Black Cloud exhibit of black paper butterflies swarmed the surfaces of interior walls of entire buildings in an eerily beautiful way.

Rosie The Bus

Nathalie and Mike Young not only converted a 1978 school-bus into a tiny and efficient traveling home but gave it a comforting name. Meet Rosie:

Norway In Miniature

Senja is Norway's second largest island that is famous for its beautiful and diverse scenery reflecting the entire span of Norwegian nature.

Comura Trilobites

Comura trilobites that are hard-shelled, segmented creatures that lived hundreds of millions of years ago in the Earth's ancient seas.  They are considered to be one of our planet's earliest complex life-forms and are one of the key signature creatures of the Paleozoic Era.  Trilobites went extinct before dinosaurs even existed.

Stick Me In My Heart

Today's find is the London based electronica, progressive rock, trip-hop band Archive. It is not easy to peel your ears off of their melancholy sound. Unfortunately their new album With Us Until You're Dead is not available on iTunes. :(

Melanism

Today I learned that melanism is the opposite of albinism. It is the development of dark-colored pigments in the skin and appendages. So just like albino animals there are melanic animals.

Continuance

Continuance is a AA rechargeable battery with a USB port on the side. How brilliant is that?

* Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles opened for Depeche Mode last night at the Staples Center. Although at first the singer Alice's shrill voice made it sound like a little girl screaming to some techno music, the drum-synth-vocal only electro-punk band quickly brought the house to their knees with their next song, turning the Staples Center into an enormous club with everyone stomping! 

And I must say Depeche Mode was of course magical and still is the best band ever existed ... for me! If I never see another concert ever again, I will be ok with that! I have lived my dream...

Soothe My Soul

I will be Soothing My Soul at the Depeche Mode concert tonight at the Staples Center for this will be my very first time seeing them live!

Time Chain

I am fascinated by time and time pieces. The Catena Wall Clock design by Andreas Dober is brilliant and beautiful with its bicycle chain induced simplicity and uniqueness.